The Welsh Highland Railway Experience

Next year, the Welsh Highland Light Railway (1964) Ltd. is launching a five-year 230,000 investment programme called "The Welsh Highland Railway Experience", aimed at developing a high quality all-weather tourist attraction for Porthmadog, capable of accomodating 50,000 visitors by the year 2000. The core of the attraction will be a brand new museum with full visitor facilities, built adjacent to Gelert's Farm engineering works of the railway.

Company Chairman Alisdair McNicol says:

"These plans reflect our strategy of developing our Porthmadog base as a high quality tourist attraction dedicated to the Welsh Highland Railway and its predecessors within the local industrial, economic and cultural environment. It will not just be a railway museum! The company is seeking to satisfy existing market demand in the locality for a quality tourist attraction and in particular to offer continued good value visitor experience to young families. We are keen to develop new markets, with day visitors becoming increasingly important to south Gwynedd. We have had encouraging results in the activity holiday field with our driver training courses, an area that has considerable growth potential!"

In addition to securing three existing seasonal jobs on the Welsh Highland Railway, the development will create at least three new permanent posts and a number of extra seasonal jobs. In addition there will be additional employment benefits during the building phase as well as the needed tourist and railway volunteer spend in the town and surrounding area. Porthmadog's position as a major tourist centre will be strengthened by this development.

All trains on the company's line will stop at the new development for visitors to enjoy an exhibition utilising the latest audio visual presentation techniques on the history of the Welsh Highland Railway, its predecessors and links to the maritime traditions of Porthmadog.

Model dioramas as well as original locomotives and rolling stock displays will enable the visitor to appreciate the railway's varied heritage. With the help of modern museum techniques, an interpretation of the particular Welsh contribution to this railway will be provided, including the local involvement of those who helped build, finance and operate the original Welsh Highland Railway undertaking.

The overall presentation of the site will be themed back into the 1920s, the period of the original railway. Replica stations of the era will be constructed to offer the visitor a unique insight into life in Wales during this period between the two world wars.